The Hokies did everything they needed to do to win on the road against No. 21 florida state. Everything but hit free throws. Instead, the Hokies blew a 15-point second half lead and missed seven critical free throws in the final 90 seconds that could have sealed the victory.

The noles, despite getting outplayed badly the entire game, were able to hang around just long enough. Trailing by 2 points, 47-45, with 10.2 seconds to play, Jarrell Eddie was fouled, but could not go the free throw line because of cramping. So, Seth Greenberg sent freshman Robert Brown to the line where he missed both free throws. fsu got the rebound, sprinted down the court and hit a game-winning three pointer.

Erick Green, who had a game-high 18 points, got a weak desperation shot off, but it never had a prayer and the Hokies lose an absolute heartbreaker, 48-47, on the road.

There are bad losses and then there’s this kind of loss.

The Hokies fell behind early, yet again, but played solid defense and took advantage of a bevy of fsu turnovers to keep the game low-scoring and close. Tech actually took a first-half lead, but the noles hit a pair of three pointers in the closing seconds to take a 25-23 halftime lead.

Tech came out fired up in the second half and opened up with a 15-0 run and looked to be running away with it. But with Victor Davila (groin) and C.J. Barksdale (ankle) already on the bench in street clothes, the Hokies lost their only big man, Cadarian Raines, to an ankle injury and that changed the remainder of the game as the Hokies had zero post presence.

The noles answers with a 12-2 run and while the Hokies held on to a 6-point lead with 1:29 to play, they missed seven free throws and that’s what eventually did them in.

Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to describe this loss. To outplay a team by such a wide margin and then lose like that because you can’t hit free throws is beyond devastating.

What makes the collapse even more surprising is that some of Tech’s most reliable free throw shooters – Green, Hudson and Eddie – are the ones that missed the majority of the free throws. To be fair, Brown should have never been in a position where his free throws could decide the game.

11-9 Raines follows a Green miss with a 2-handed tip-in
13-9 Loucks answers with a bucket
— Hudson misses a jumper
— Snaer called for an offensive foul, his 2nd foul
— DFS on the bench with 2 fouls as well
— fsu gets away with a goaltending
— fsu turnover
13-11 Raines gets the offensive rebound and puts it back up and in

U8 – 13-11 fsu

— fsu has 8 turnovers, the only reason VT still in the game
— fsu commits 9th turnover
14-13 (vt) Hudson hits a three pointer to give VT its first lead of the game
— color guy wouldn’t shut up and they didn’t even mention tech’s three pointer
16-14 (fsu) answers with a three of its own
18-16 (vt) Hudson hits a three in the corner and gets fouled, completed the 4-point play
— fsu misses, VT rebound
— Hudson misses a three
— fsu misses, VT rebounds
20-16 Green completes a fastbreak layup
— fsu misses, VT rebounds
— Green called for the travel

U4 – 20-16 VT

20-19 fsu hits a three pointer
— this color commentator just won’t effing shut up
23-19 Green answers with a three pointer (Green has 9 points)
— Eddie called for 2nd personal foul
23-19 James misses both FTs
— VT rebounds the miss
— Raines misses underneath
23-22 Dulkys makes a three pointer
— Brown has his shot blocked
25-23 (fsu) Miller hits a three off the fast break
— 6-0 run for FSU
— Green misses a three, but Hudson with the off. rebound
— Loucks fouls Green away from the ball
— Green takes a bad last shot, no one got open

Halftime – fsu 26, VT 23

25-25 Eddie with the baseline jumper (6 points for Eddie)
— fsu bad pass, turnover
27-25 (vt) Green converts off the fast break
30-25 Green drains a three (14 points for Green)
— VT open 2nd half with a 7-0 run
30-25 James misses both FTs
— VT rebounds missed FT
33-25 Eddie buries a three from the corner near the VT bench
— VT on a 10-0 run to open the 2nd half
— fsu timeout
— another fsu turnover
— Green misses a long jumper
— fsu miss, VT rebound
35-25 Green drives from the top of the key, draws the double, feeds DFS for the uncontested two-hand flush
— VT extends run to 12-0
— fsu miss, VT rebounds, fsu fans booing
37-25 DFS gets the feed from Raines off the give and go, gets the hoop and the harm!

U16 – 37-25 VT (fsu has yet to score in the 2nd half)

38-25 – DFS makes the FT to complete the 3-point play
— VT on a 15-0 run
— fsu blocks a Rankin layup, no foul, but ball out of bounds on fsu, still VT ball
— shot clock violation on VT because of a loose ball
— fsu turnover, still hasn’t scored more than 5 minutes into the half
40-25 Brown hits the rainbow jumper from the free throw line
— VT on a 17-0 run
40-27 fsu finally scores its first bucket of the 2nd half at the 13:58 mark, James rebound and put back
— Hudson misses a three, DFS with the rebound and gets fouled
— DFS loses the ball out of bounds, VT turnover
— fsu bad shot, VT rebound
— VT misses, fsu rebound
— fsu takes a long and bad three pointer, misses
— DFS misses the jumper
— fsu misses baseline layup, VT rebounds

— Hudson misses a jumper
40-29 Snaer off the glass
— Raines comes up limping, VT going very small
— Hudson misses a long three as the SC expired
— fsu misses two short shots, VT rebounds
— Eddie misses a three
— Snaer fouled
— Snaer misses a quick shot off the inbounds, VT rebounds
42-29 Green gets a shot to go after bouncing around the rim for an eternity (16 points for Green)
42-31 Gibson follows a misses with a two-hand slam
— DFS airballs a three pointer
42-33 fsu converts off the DFS miss and gets the layup

U8 – 42-33 VT

— VT has gone pretty cold with no big bodies in the post
— Hudson misses a jumper, fsu rebound
— Eddie called for a foul on Snaer
42-35 Snaer scores again off the inbounds pass
— VT misses, but gets rebound
— fsu on a 10-2 run
— VT can’t buy a bucket now
42-37 Miller hits a jumper
— fsu on a 12-2 run
— VT has to use a timeout because it can’t inbound the ball
— foul on fsu’s miller on the inbounds pass
44-37 Green drives the lane and gets the high floater to go (18 points)
— foul on VT
— foul on VT
44-37 Peterson misses both FTs
— DFS gets the rebound
— fsu 1/8 free throws
— Green drives and has hit shot blocked
— DFS block, VT fights hard for the loose gall
— 3:11 left to play
— Hudson misses a shot at the buzzer, fsu rebound
— fsu misses a three, VT rebounds
— fsu called for the foul

This post was written by:

Cope is a Virginia Tech graduate and veteran sports journalist with a career spanning television, radio, and newspapers. He's the recipient of three Virginia Press Association awards for his writing and design, as well as a CASE Gold Award for his feature writing. Cope has covered the Hokies since 1993 for various local and national news organizations. He's been with TechHoops.com since 2007.

That was the most painful game I think I have ever watched. Any idea why Greenberg chose Robert Brown to shoot those shots? I know Hudson and Green just missed a few, but that’s a lot of pressure on the road for a freshman.

Here’s the rule (it was just changed in 2009, the offensive team used to choose the shooter):

When an injured player is unable to attempt his free throw(s), the following procedures shall be employed:
1. The coach from the opposing team shall select, without undue delay, one of the four players remaining on the court to attempt the free throw(s). Once selected by the coach, the shooter may not be changed.
2. After the selection has been identified to the referee, that player and his coach shall be informed of the selection.
3. A legal substitution(s) shall be made before the expiration of the 20-second time limit to replace an injured player.

What a bunch of BS! I am livid! The Trainers for VT loss this game. I have never seen a bunch of limpin’ lizards like this before. It was injury dominoes! You know one thing I don’t get? Basketball is the only sport where you miss shots and every one around you gets to high/low five you for the effort (or lack thereof). Seth needs to change that! Teamwork and confidence is one thing, but its out-a-hand! If I am an 80% freethrow shooter and the game is on the line, get me the F#@% UP, and prop me up like “weekend at Bernies” and let me shoot it! Just one point = instant hero! I almost had a heart attack here! SUMBEACH!

I found myself muttering ‘unbelievable’ to myself a lot. We just need to realize these are exactly the kinds of things we do (in football also). We play timid rather than attack the basket for an easy layup or guaranteed foul and hope that the other team doesn’t score the wide open winning basket. I’m past the point of hearing about our effort and heart after these games when we get in tough spots – at some point it should come after a big win rather than another close loss.

We don’t have anyone stepping up consistently to be the second scorer behind Green. By default, they look to Hudson since he’s the senior. Hudson is so streaky. He can shoot you out of a lead as well as back into the game.

They need to win the next two. More importantly, to prepare for next season, Eddie needs to be more consistent and Brown needs to show he can score.

Guys, I’ve been kind of hard on the team this year, but I’m so proud of the way the guys played tonight. We did not win this game – but I saw a team the played hard on every possession – and that’s pretty much all I can ask for. If we play like this the rest of the season, we’re going to be a nightmare for some team in the ACC tournament.

I was also proud of the effort. Just a sickening/devastating way to lose a game. We almost stole one. Would have been a huge win and given us a fighting chance for post-season (I know NIT, but this year that would feel pretty good right now).

There were definitely some positives from this game… VT came out attacking in the second half and really lit it up against a fantastic defense. They only slowed down because that was Greenberg’s choice to take time off the clock (he did this way too early, btw). The 2-3 zone defense was an excellent move by Greenberg… you could tell that FSU wasn’t ready for it and didn’t know how to break it down. We were in line to beat a team with gigantic (and good) post players when we only had one true post player and he didn’t even play for the last 8 minutes or so because of cramps. That effort was excellent… it sucks that we lost because our usually-good free throw shooters couldn’t hit shots, but I think we should all be proud of this effort.

Not to be a downer, but it’s not like it really mattered if we won this game or not… I don’t know if VT even has a shot to sneak into the NIT.

FSU hasn’t been ready for our 2-3 zone in 4 games. When we beat FSU twice last year, we forced them to beat us by the zone in two games -as I recall, we used a little bit of that in the first game with FSU at the Cassell this year, too… it was a good coaching move that we used this year and last year. We didn’t make those FT’s at the end, but I’m damn proud of the team – in March, this team might win two games in Georgia.